Michigan State University

Collection Development Policy Statement: Sociology

Factors Influencing Collection Policy

A. Anticipated Future Trends

As the Global Transformation theme of the Department of Sociology suggests, sociology is becoming increasingly concerned with an international view of modern society.  Interdisciplinary endeavors including sociology are also continuing to grow.  Sociology is involved with investigating and solving social problems, so the trajectory of sociology will be tied to new trends and evolutions in the social world alongside ongoing inquiry into historical and perennial societal issues.

The growth of data-intensive research must also be of direct concern. Grant-funded research will be subject to data management plan requirements, including considerations for publishing and sharing data. This will increase the need for data publication venues. Calls for data sharing and replication-based sociology have appeared in the scholarly literature, particularly as many sociologists do rely on secondary data from survey research.

B. Relationships to Resources Treated in Other Policy Statement

On campus branch or format collections

  • Digital and Multimedia Center: video materials are popular for instructional purposes. Video and audio recordings may be used in documentary research.
  • Murray and Hong Special Collections: Materials related to social movements
  • Government Documents: social policy related materials and statistics
  • Map Library: Geospatial information and data
  • Numeric Data: Social data
  • Digital text: textual data for content analysis
  • MSU Digital Research Data: datasets produced by Sociology faculty

Other Collection Development Policy Statements for Subject Areas 

  • Agricultural Economics (rural sociology, developing societies)

  • Area Studies (international social problems)
  • Art (design, costume, culture)
  • Business (organizations)
  • Criminal Justice (criminology)
  • Education (sociology of education)
  • Environmental Studies (sociology of the environment, human-environment interaction)
  • Ethnic Studies (special populations, race)
  • Government Documents (policy and statistics)
  • History (social history)
  • Labor & Industrial Relations (work and family, retirement)
  • Law (statutes, appropriates, legislation)
  • Medicine (public health)
  • Political Science/Public Policy (social policies)
  • Psychology (social psychology)
  • Science (cultural aspects of food and science)
  • Social Work (social policies, social welfare)
  • Murray and Hong Special Collections (popular culture, radicalism)
  • Urban Planning (urban development, housing)
  • Women and Gender Studies (special populations, marriage and family issues)

C. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

DEIA is of relevant interest to Sociologist and the Sociology faculty and curriculum at MSU. MSU Sociology's focus on migration, environment, and health lends itself to a DEIA lens. Materials in these subject areas are collected with a particular attention to people of color, women, disability, the global south, and the LGBTQIA community.